Cold
by s n u c k
Summary: Mio's new psychiatrist resembles a certain white-haired boy. As does his situation. [ post FF2 - reincarnations ]


_It's very cold… and lonely… in her mind…_

Mio sighed, crossing her ankles, staring out at the street. Cars were passing, angrily honking horns at each other and shouting to the drivers. "If only they knew what they had…" the 17 year old though out-loud.

"Why am I here…" mumbled Mio, idly. 13 psychiatrists and not a single one could help her. How could this one be any different?

It had been two long years since it happened, since she killed Mayu. Mio's brain still couldn't register it. She often found herself talking to walls, animals, and even air. Her parents were devastated when they Mio first told them that Mayu was 'lost in the woods'. The twins had been missing for a month.

**A month.**

It didn't even seem like more than a day or two. But they had definitely been to that village. Mio knew it. It wasn't a dream.

Her white hair proved that.

Mio looked older than she was. Her hair was stark white, her eyes had an empty gazing look, and she always slouched. She just didn't care anymore. Her skin was paler than anyone else's, and she resembled one of the ghosts that she had fought two years ago.

A man, maybe 25 years old, closed the door behind him. Mio slowly took her gaze away from the window, and herself out of her thoughts, to look at him.

The first word that popped into her head was 'Itsuki'.

The first word that popped into his head was 'Ghost?'

The man did indeed look like Itsuki Tachibana. He was a little older than him, of course, and had dark hair instead of the white hair that the ghost had previously. But Mio could have sworn it was Itsuki Tachibana.

"Hello. You must be Mio-san. I'm…"

"Tachibana?"

"…What?"

The girl cocked her head to the side and gave him a lopsided smile. "Itsuki Tachibana."

"…No…"

"Oh," muttered Mio, dropping her shoulder length hair so that it shaded her face. "You look like him." She turned back to gaze out the window from her chair.

"Who was this, Itsuki?" said the psychiatrist, pulling a chair to sit beside Mio. He rested his hands on his lap and looked quizzically at her.

"He was a boy who helped me long ago," said Mio, leaning her head back and staring at the ceiling. "Back when I was with Sae… we had to escape, he helped."

"Sae?" said the man, raising an eyebrow. He knew he didn't have an easy task with this girl. People with more experience didn't even know what to do with her. He had taken her, because he needed the money, and he had experience with people like this. He himself had lost his twin, as had this girl.

"Yes, Sae, my twin."

"I was informed that your twin's name was Mayu." Mio smiled again.

"Oh, yes. I forgot. Mayu." A single tear fell off of her cheek. "I forget things, a lot. Like her name. Like my name. What is your name? I haven't found out yet."

"Oh. I'm Tamasine. Just call me that." He smiled a bit. "So, what's it like at your home."

Mio thought for a while, listening to the cars outside go by. "It's cold."

"Cold…?"

"Yes, cold, like it is everywhere else. I miss her. I miss her light… her heat…" she muttered.

"How… did your twin… disappear, Mio-san?" asked Tamasine, thinking that was the best question to ask. Mio was obviously very sensitive.

"We were outside one day, when we were 15. We were out in a forest we used to play in when we were little kids. Mayu saw a pretty red butterfly. She went chasing it. I followed her," said Mio, her voice very soft, as if she were speaking to a young child about the death of a mother.

"Did you lose her in the forest?" asked Tamasine, keeping a close watch on her face. Mio looked down for a moment, at him, and then back out the window.

"No… I lost her in the village…" she muttered.

Tamasine decided he wasn't getting anywhere. "What, exactly, happened to your sister, Mio-san?"

"Tamasine-san… if I told you… you'd think I was crazy…" she said, at barely a whisper. The psychiatrist raised an eyebrow. He had seen many crazy people, being a psychiatrist. This was probably just another one.

For a moment, he thought she'd say something along the lines of 'I see dead people.'

"All God's Village… the vanished village… It should have disappeared a long time ago, when we weren't us," muttered Mio. This all sounded like nonsense to Tamasine, but he was being paid to listen, so he did. "You were there, locked in your room, staring out at a dead village. Your brother, Mutsuki, was dead. You had killed him. He had asked you to."

At this, Tamasine tensed up. The names that she kept calling him and herself seemed oddly familiar to him.

"We stumbled upon it. It was there that Mayu started to behave odder than normal. I would often see her crying and saying 'Don't leave me alone'. She also wore that pretty white kimono with the severed red sash," Mio smiled at the apparently pleasant memory, "But it was always stained in blood. She would limp away from me, and when I finally caught up with her, I had to end it. She told me to kill her. I did. And she flew to heaven, on the wings of a blood red butterfly."

Mio smiled again.

"That was… Noroku's favorite insect…" muttered Tamasine, not even thinking about what he was saying.

"Your twin… that was his name?" asked Mio. "I know I shouldn't be asking, but is he dead too?"

The psychiatrist was disturbed that the girl would ask such a question. "Yes… he died three years ago-"

"On September the 24th."

"How did you know?" Mio giggled slightly, rocking back and forth on her chair.

"Because that's the exact day that my Sae died. September the twenty-fourth," Mio sighed as if remembering a nice day in the park. "Was he strangled?"

"…" Tamasine had to look away from her. Why was she asking all these questions about his dead twin? It was almost as if she knew him. "…You won't tell anyone?"

"These sessions are to be kept confidential," said Mio, giving her odd little smile again.

"Noroku was… suicidal. On many occasions, I found him with slit wrists, nearly dead. He told me not to tell anyone…" muttered Tamasine. Why was he telling her? He didn't even know. "One night, I went to visit him. He was crying, I remember. Wandering around his house like a specter. He… he said he didn't want to live anymore. I didn't want him to suffer. I helped him hang himself. I regret it now."

Tamasine looked down at the floor, tears stinging his eyes. He suddenly felt an odd chill on his back, and realized that Mio was hugging him from behind. She felt dead too, he realized.

"It's not your fault. It's all the Crimson Sacrifice, reoccurring. Soon, we will find another Akane and Azami. And tragedy will strike again," muttered the girl.

"Kiryu…"muttered Tamasine. He wasn't really aware how those words kept coming into his head. It made no sense. But he knew this girl. He felt like he knew Mio Amakura, the twin-less twin.

He knew her more than he thought.

A/N: Well, there you go. There's chapter one. ;D

Translations for the Names:

Tamasine – Twin

Noroku – Remain (Even though he wasn't the remaining? o.O )

Coming Characters:

Akane and Azami – As Kagami and Kyoko (Both mean Mirror)

Chitose – As Suzuko (Bell Child)

This Story came to me on a whim. I was just thinking, 'What happened to Mio after the village?' 'What happened to her parents?' 'Why doesn't she see a psychiatrist!?'

More will be coming, including a little trip back to the village. :D

Stay tuned.


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